Author Notes - This is a long one. The longest chapter yet at about 8,500 words. The only reason that it's out so soon is that I had most of it written already. It took me a week to finish and edit it. Don't expect weekly updates in the future. However, It could happen if I get that writer's itch I hear so much about.

Thank you all for the reviews for Chapter Seven. They were appreciated.

Onward to...

Chapter Eight

It had been almost a week since Angel left town with Faith. Harry knew that Buffy must have tried her hardest to get Angel to stay and let someone else take responsibility for the wayward Slayer, but he had refused. Instead, he left town with Faith that very night without saying a word to anyone else. Angel had only told Buffy where he was headed, and she had not seen a reason to spread that secret. Buffy had assured them all that Angel would make sure not to attract any attention and would come back when he felt that Faith was ready to do so. Buffy and Angel must have understood that with every person who knew the location of Faith, the risk of being discovered by The Mayor grew; for secrets were never known to remain secrets for long.

It was very likely that Wesley hadn't kept his word about not getting The Council involved. Harry would have been surprised if the coward lasted more than a day before caving and telling them everything. Harry didn't think that the threat of being seen as incompetent had swayed Wesley for very long. Harry didn't know if Buffy would keep her word on her threat to quit the Council, but in the end, it hardly mattered to him. Perhaps a little selfishly, he hoped that the distraction of Faith's disappearance and Buffy's threat would buy him a bit of time before The Council shifted their worries onto him. It would give him enough time to prepare for the worst.

Harry had thought about asking Angel for permission to crash at his place while he was away, but the vampire left before Harry got the chance. He figured that staying there without permission wouldn't be good for the fragile trust that he had built with the others, so he continued to stay at Giles's place. It was probably for the best anyway, Angel's home would most likely be under constant surveillance in hopes that they could catch Angel returning to Sunnydale. Giles never told the others about where Harry was staying and Harry hoped that that secrecy would keep Giles's place off the target list of the both the Mayor and The Watcher's Council. Either way, he eventually needed to find some place of his own to stay. He didn't enjoy putting Giles in unnecessary danger.

However, besides the potential threat to Giles, Harry thought that the arrangement he had with the older man was working out quite well. Giles was away at work or on Watcher duty a majority of the time and only really came home to sleep, which meant Harry had the place mostly to himself during the day.

Harry hadn't seen anyone else during this time and had found himself alone for a majority of the week while working on his wand among other things. It was hard for Harry to find a reason to just hang out with anyone else when he didn't go to school with them or have anything at all in common with them. Buffy and he both shared the whole 'chosen' thing but it was hardly a conversation starter. He was an outsider and he knew it. After a week alone, Harry would admit that it had started to get lonely. Fortunately, this was something he was quite used to.

The idea that just around the corner there was a possibility of a large apocalyptic fight to the death kept him from becoming too solemn during his solitude.

However, even though Harry hadn't ever really been part of their group, Giles was still kind enough to give him a nightly status update. Apparently, because of the departure of Angel, Buffy was using her time during the day sulking around quite depressingly. However, at night, she was spending a lot of time around city hall in hopes of finding clues to the Mayor's activities while looking out for any of his henchmen. Harry imagined that any unlucky vampire that had crossed her path that week had been beaten up a little harder and longer than usual. Angel had called Buffy a few times throughout the week, but only to keep them updated. He informed them that he was okay and that Faith was improving, but he refused to say much else.

As for Harry himself, well, he had been right in his prediction that a wand would not be an easy thing to craft and he was now on his sixth attempt. He had snapped the first one right in half while trying to make it straight and had given the second one a nice warped tip that would make spell casting virtually impossible. The next three had been useable but unimpressive. One was too bulky, another too short, and the third's handle was the most uncomfortable wand he had ever had the displeasure of holding. Each failure was met with Harry quitting the process for the day, and instead, he would focus on another project of his.

Earlier that week, when Willow had questioned whether Harry had a way to hide Angel and Faith, he was a little disappointed in himself for never taking the time to learn how to cast the Fidelius Charm. It was a useful charm to know, and Harry had delayed learning it for one reason or another. Fortunately, he knew quite a bit of charm theory, as it was one of his stronger subjects. Another bonus was the fact that the Fidelius was a charm favored by criminal syndicates. During his Auror training, there was a whole week of training with instructions on finding the weaknesses of the charm. Among them were detailed ways that it could be exploited and ways to sniff out a secret keeper. During these lessons, he had glanced at the instructions of casting the charm many times. It was not a charm that Aurors were expected to learn, and Harry had been busy with another project at the time. Amusingly enough, if he recalled correctly, it was around that time that he had been fascinated with the idea of creating a staff.

Unlike Hermione, he did not have anything even resembling an eidetic memory and couldn't just recall those instructions back into his mind. But, even without the ability to recall from memory the complete spell, he was still able to make a lot of progress on reconstructing it. He was only able to remember bits and pieces from the instruction manual, but the pieces he did not know were slowly taking form with the inclusion of a lot of educated guess work. It was proving to require quite a lot of work, but that was hardly going to stop him. It didn't matter how long it took him to recreate the charm, it was far too useful of a spell to give up on. With a trusted secret keeper, he would be able to sleep, eat, and do magic in peace without even a shred of fear that someone would walk in or attack him. At the moment a possible attack was just far too likely to ignore.

Harry figured that soon enough the Mayor would get sick of waiting for Faith to return and would instead seek revenge on the few people who had the means to oppose him; which boiled down to Buffy and himself. With Angel gone, they were the only two real threats left to the Mayor's plans. Buffy's powers and limitations were well known to the Mayor and he had not seen a reason to take her out before, so it seemed reasonable that he did not see her as much of a threat. Harry, however, was an unknown obstacle, and that was probably why he had immediately sent two of his hired hands to see what they could learn. As long as the vampire that had escaped the attack at the abandoned factory returned to his master, then the Mayor knew that Harry was more than just a run of the mill wizard. Harry had proved that he was a threat, and he didn't think the Mayor had any plans of just letting him be.

Another bonus to learning the Fidelius would be the ability to bring Angel back into the fold. If Harry could protect any place with a Fidelius charm, then Angel's reasons for remaining away wouldn't be as strong. Having another fighter in town to help out would only be a good thing. Though this would rely on Angel's ability to get through to Faith and keep her from going back to serving the Mayor.

Although he was making steady progress on both the Fidelius Charm as well as his wand crafting, the final piece of the puzzle to completing the charm was still eluding him. He'd been able to piece together the ritual, including the incantation, the wand movements, and even the intent required. However, he was stuck on the process of how to choose a secret keeper. Was the Keeper meant to be part of the ritual, or was the Keeper merely the person who the caster told first? The only thing Harry knew was that the main draw back to using the Fidelius Charm was that the secret keeper couldn't spend too much time inside of the Fidelius Charm without it collapsing. The secret had to be out in the world, not hiding inside of the very charm it was protecting. He couldn't be the Secret Keeper of his own location; just as his parents hadn't been able to be their own. If this wasn't so, then perhaps that would have been enough to save his parents from their fates. This meant that you not only had to trust someone with your secret but that the same person you trusted was forced to see less of you.

His main worry at the moment was that the Secret Keeper had to be a witch or wizard. This alone would make the charm useless in this universe unless he found a way to modify it enough to work regardless. He was just about at the end of what he could do alone with the recreation of the spell. It was almost time to actually start experimenting with it, but he would need someone to help him; to take the role as the Secret Keeper. He already had the perfect someone in mind; but it would have to wait until another time, for it was already well into the night. Harry gathered the large collection of papers scattered across the table; all with hand written notes about the Fidelius scrawled onto them. He piled them up into a neat pile before shrinking them and sticking them into his pocket.

Instead of continuing his Fidelius work, he brought out his sixth crafted wand attempt of the week. A little bit of wand carving before bed always had the tendency of putting him to sleep. He found himself using it as a sleeping aid more and more when wand movements, incantations, and magic theory refused to leave his mind at night. As he sat down, ready to get started on his personal sleep therapy, the phone rang.

It was Giles, and his voice sounded urgent; he needed Harry's help. The thought of sleep left his mind instantly as the expectation of a possible upcoming fight took its spot and brightened his mood. He hastily placed the phone down and apparated to the school library.

Harry walked out from his hiding spot and found Giles working on a project in the middle of the library. There were flasks, ingredients, and books scattered across the table, nearly covering it completely. With one glance at Giles, Harry realized that whatever was happening was serious, for the man looked like death. His face was pale, his hair greasy and his eyes were sunken. It was the face of someone going mad with worry. Giles wore the same expression that Harry had seen many times on the face of Hermione; days before school exams.

Harry gave the man a questioning look wondering why he had been summoned. Giles began to explain as he fumbled for specific ingredients and added them to the collection sitting on the table. Although obviously distracted with the work, Giles still managed to speak fast, his words coming out quicker than what Harry thought possible. So quick that Harry imagined that he missed at least a fourth of them. Still, he was able to grasp an understanding of the situation. Buffy had been fighting a large demon the night before, and during the kill, she got some of its blood on her. The blood had been absorbed into her skin and because of that, she was developing telepathic abilities. The abilities were fun for her at first but quickly turned nightmarish as she could no longer control who or how many thoughts she was hearing. Giles would soon have an antidote ready, but the last ingredient called for the fresh heart of a demon of the same species. With the Slayer out of commission, Harry seemed to be their only hope in being able to kill a demon of that size.

After a moment of thinking about the situation that Buffy and the others found themselves in, Harry couldn't do anything but frown. "I have no idea where I'd even start looking for the demon," Harry answered honestly, "have you asked Buffy for Angel's number?"

Giles let out a long sigh, "We finally got in touch with him, but he said that by the time he'd make it back it would be daylight. I downplayed how serious it was once he told me that. If we wait until tomorrow it'll be too late."

"Too late?" Harry asked. He didn't understand how this ability of hers could possibly be fatal.

"She heard someone think about murdering all of the students tomorrow; she was pretty adamant that whoever thought it, meant it. The others are trying to find out who it was, but they haven't made much progress," Giles said quickly, as he flipped through a new book. From the title it looked like a demon encyclopedia, specifically discussing the well-known habitats of specific demons.

The easiest option for Harry would be to wait and hope that Giles found a potential location of the demon, and then begin a hunt. However, as Harry thought about what was happening to Buffy, he began to think of a possible solution. "Where's Buffy now? Can I see her?" he asked, "I might be able to help in another way."

Giles looked up in hope, "She's home with her mother. Let me give her a call to tell her that you are coming." He calmed himself with a few deep breaths before picking up the phone and dialing a number. The call was brief and Harry was able to overhear Giles giving Buffy's mother no promises that Harry could help her daughter; something he was thankful for. Once the phone call was done, Harry once again asked for permission to enter the older man's mind. He had never been to Buffy's home and didn't think Giles would want him to waste time getting there.

Giles nodded his consent without hesitation. Harry would have liked to believe that he had earned the man's absolute trust, but he thought if far more likely that Giles was just too worried to care.

Giles closed his eyes to collect his thoughts. He opened them a moment later. "Go on," he said. Harry obliged as he traveled into the older man's mind. Although Harry knew that Giles had tried hard to gather his thoughts, the librarian's memories were once again flying at him in rapid succession. One after another and Harry noticed an immediate theme; they all contained images of Buffy. Harry tried not to pay attention to any of them, but he was still able to see glimpses of the Slayer fighting, laughing, smiling and even crying. Harry ignored them all and gave the man time to gather his thoughts. It was a full minute later that Giles finally focused and Harry was able to find the proper memory. He canceled the connection and focused solely on that one memory as he disappeared from the school before reappearing on the front porch of a two story suburban home.

Where as the Dursley's made sure their garden was immaculate and the grass cut even, Buffy's family didn't seem to care about any of that. The grass was too long to be considered a lawn and the large trees, hedges and weeds running along the foundation looked like they hadn't been touched for over a year. It was a white house with black roofing and looked far more like a home lived in than the houses on privet drive ever did.

Before Harry could do anything else, he felt a sudden forceful intrusion into his mind. Remembering his Occlumency lessons, he cleared his mind a moment later. The intrusion went away. As a test, Harry focused on his mental shield of nothingness and slowly brought it down and was not surprised to find that the intrusion immediately returned. He hastily brought the shield back up and felt it retreat once again. It was very strange that something within Buffy could sense his presence and intrude into his thoughts so quickly. Something that powerful was completely unheard of in his world for practitioners of the mental arts.

Harry knocked on the door and it opened swiftly after just a moment. An attractive middle aged blonde woman was on the other side. Harry could immediately see the resemblance between her and Buffy.

"Harry Potter?" she questioned.

Harry nodded as she held the door open and stepped aside. There was no direct invitation, and Harry knew that if he was a vampire, he wouldn't be able to get inside. He imagined it was a test that she had done before. He stepped inside and closed the door.

"She's upstairs," she said. Her forehead was wrinkled with worry. "You can help her?"

"I can try," he replied, making sure not to make any promises. Harry followed the mother up the stairs.

"It's Joyce by the way." she mumbled as they made their way to the second floor.

"Perhaps we can officially meet under better circumstances." Harry offered. She nodded as they reached a door.

"I shouldn't go in. She gets worse when anyone gets near her," she said as she bit her lip.

Harry thanked her and walked into the room. His first impression was that the room was rather ordinary. A dresser was propped up against one of the white walls and on the other side of the room sat a large white bed. The only strange thing there was Buffy. She was currently under the covers, but she wasn't asleep. Although with the lack of response to his entrance, Harry wouldn't call her awake either. Rather she was lost in her own world, tossing and turning while groaning in misery. Harry could feel the pressure build on his Occlumency shield. Now that Harry was close, the probe seemed to have renewed its efforts in finding a way through the barrier; as if it had a mind of its own. After a handful of seconds of it trying and failing to find a way into his mind, it gave up and disappeared completely.

Harry frowned as he watched Buffy continue to suffer. Instead of the visions of memories you'd get with standard Legilimency, she was having a person's thoughts immediately projected into her mind. This neat trick that she had inherited from the demon to hear what others were thinking seemed to have quickly turned into a maddening tidal wave of thoughts pounding into her mind. It was almost like she had an infinite amount of Legilimen probes expanding out and into the minds of everyone within miles. The minds of just her mother and her neighbors wouldn't be able to do this to her. The power would have to be much farther reaching than that, and Harry thought that it was quite extraordinary.

During Giles's earlier explanation of the situation, he had reasoned that the demon's ability of telepathy was an evolutionary trait. Harry thought that even if that was true, it didn't explain it all. As far as he knew there was nothing in science that could even support the idea of someone projecting their thoughts and another person hearing them. Harry's own conclusion was that this particular demonic species was magical and that this telepathy of theirs was a magical ability. Similar to how a Parselmouth had their own unique form of magic given to them genetically, Harry imagined this type of demon also passed down this magical telepathic trait to its offspring. The only difference being that they apparently had the ability to spread this ability to others through their blood. The way that it could do this made Harry think that it could also be seen as a defensive trait. If the attacker couldn't handle the power, then it would be incapacitated quite quickly; a good way to punish anything that even dared to wound it. If Buffy encountered a similar demon in the future, I imagine she'd be quite a bit more cautious.

The way that his Occlumency shields were able to block her ability to hear his thoughts just made him more confident that his theory was correct. If it was magic causing this, then magic would hopefully be able to help her make it stop. Getting to work, Harry imagined a barrier that would encompass Buffy's entire bed. He used his left hand to trace where the magical shield would appear and raised up his other hand; his wand at the ready. As he circled the bed, he chanted the incantation for the protective ward, "Protego Totalum."

As he finished circling the bed, a flash of light signaled the completion of the spell and a bright golden dome showed itself for only a moment before returning to its transparent state. Harry watched Buffy for anything that would indicate that she was improving and let out a breath when he noticed that she had stopped fidgeting and moaning in pain. It took her a minute, but eventually, her face became more relaxed and her eyes flashed open.

"They're gone," she said in surprise and relief. Harry smiled as he called out to Joyce. Buffy's mother came rushing in as Buffy herself sat up in bed. Joyce ran to her daughter's side before engulfing Buffy in a hug. Harry could see tears on her face.

"I'm so relieved," Joyce said, explaining her tears.

Buffy winced as new thoughts appeared in her mind. "I know," she murmured in confusion, "I can still hear you."

Joyce jumped back as she began to fear that she had hurt her daughter. They both turned to Harry for an explanation.

"There is a magical barrier around your bed," Harry explained, "you'll be able to hear the thoughts of any who pass through it. Also, if you leave your bed then they'll all come rushing back."

"I'll be stuck here forever?" Buffy asked in horror as a life trapped in her bed flashed before her eyes. Her thoughts quickly turned to the people who needed her help. "I can't stay here. People are going to die."

Harry quickly tried to relieve her worries, "Giles has found a cure, but it requires your help. I have a way to make you mobile, but I wanted to make sure it would work first. The barrier around your bed was just a test."

Buffy's shoulders sagged in relief. "I thought this ability was a gift," Buffy admitted with a sardonic laugh and Harry gave her a weak smile. If the situation was reversed, then he imagined that he too would have been overjoyed to hear what those around him were thinking.

"Do you have a necklace that I could borrow?" Harry asked as he prepared to fix Buffy's immobility. "Preferably one that you wouldn't mind losing?"

Buffy nodded and instructed her mother to get a specific piece from her drawer. Joyce found it a moment later and handed it to Harry. It had a small heart medallion at the end of it and seemed to be made of fake gold. It looked like something Buffy might have worn when she was younger. Harry sat on the floor cross legged and closed his eyes to mentally prepare himself.

After a few minutes, he opened them and began to work. Harry held the necklace close to his wand as he magically carved three runes onto the front of the medallion. They were the standard runes for Protection, Power, and Containment. It was a very simple construct, but it was all that Harry figured would be required. As he finished carving the runes, he looked up. Buffy and Joyce were watching him intently, both hoping that whatever he was doing would work. Harry placed his wand on the necklace and, for the second time that night, incanted, "Protego Totalum."

This was a much different shield than the first around her bed had been. The first was stationary. Nothing could move it and magic couldn't pass through it, but it was fragile and easy to break. It could repel and trap all magic, but if its foundation was changed in any way, it would fall. All anyone would need to do was break one floorboard beneath it and it would shatter. Normally, the necklace wouldn't be able to support a shield spell, but the runes he had carved would allow the necklace to keep a stable shield. The necklace would shield anything within two feet of it, which would be enough to completely cover the user's head. The only way to destroy it would be to break the necklace itself or overpower it with magic. The drawback was that because of the manner in which Buffy was constantly having invisible mental probes pounding into the shield, a simple shield just wouldn't last long. In order to keep it strong and active, Harry would need to channel it. His wand hummed in his hand as the spell remained active. He could feel the small continuous drain on his magic.

He could have instead enchanted the necklace with a much stronger shield, but it would have taken him the night or so to combine the proper runes together and weave them with the proper spells. It would require the whole night because of the fact that he was, quite frankly, a complete novice when it came to runecraft. Much of the work would be figuring it out on the spot through trial and error. And though working all night on getting a fully independent medallion to function as a magical head shield would have been an interesting project for Harry, he figured that it was far more prudent to get to this demon as quick as possible. Even if Harry worked all night on manufacturing a stronger shield for Buffy, he still wouldn't be able to estimate how long it would hold. He had no experience with the magic that Buffy was currently emitting, so he was clueless as to how much power the necklace would require.

Regardless of how crude the medallion he had made was, the action of him channeling the shield would allow him to know when it was going to break; for it would only break when Harry could no longer hold it. This would at least give him plenty of warning in order to prepare another option.

Harry got up from the floor and handed the necklace to Buffy. "This should protect you for now but I will need to remain close or the protection will fall."

Buffy took the necklace gingerly. Harry watched as she traced the carved runes with her finger before shrugging and placing it around her neck. She cautiously left the bed as she prepared for a mental assault. The tension in her shoulders visibly relaxed as the necklace succeeded at keeping the thoughts away. Joyce seemed to have realized that it was working because she immediately walked across the room and gave Harry a quick and fierce hug, causing him to blush at the unexpected show of affection.

"Now, what did Giles say?" Buffy asked as Joyce left the room, presumably to go to bed. The emotional roller coaster seemed to have worn her out.

"We need a heart from the same kind of demon that did this to you," Harry explained. "You said there was another one?"

She confirmed it with a nod before rushing over to her closet where she took out a large wooden chest. The lid opened to reveal a variety of weapons and objects. She grabbed a sword and a knife. It was at that moment that Harry noticed that she was wearing a pair of pink pajamas and cracked a grin at the rather girly outfit. After putting her chest of weapons back into her closet, she rushed him out of the room so she could change.

She emerged a minute later in jeans and a red shirt, with a strange expression on her face. She flew past him and began down the stairs. She already seemed to have a destination in mind.

"Giles wanted me to kill it, but I had no idea where to even begin looking," Harry explained as he followed her down the stairs and out of the house.

"I can feel it," Buffy said in confusion as a flash of worry appeared on her face.

"Really?" Harry asked, intrigued.

"That'll go away too right?" she asked hopefully. Harry just shrugged. Giles wasn't even sure the potion would work at all, but Harry was hardly going to tell her that.

"Maybe a part of their telepathy is the ability to sense their own kind," Harry said thoughtfully, "it would make sense if they were social creatures. Without a mouth to speak, it would be hard to find others. If you killing the thing doesn't stop the connection then I imagine the cure would."

Harry followed her as she turned swiftly and headed into a large park. "Why isn't this magic necklace stopping it?" Buffy asked she briefly grabbed a hold of the amulet.

"My magic is protecting your chest and head, so no thoughts can make it through. If the ability is in your blood, then I guess your whole body can feel the connection." Harry reasoned.

Buffy stopped abruptly. "How close do you need to be before the magic stops working?" she whispered.

"Just in eyesight," Harry answered as he scanned the area for any signs of the demon. There were a few light posts around so it wasn't completely dark, which was a good thing, as his wand was far too preoccupied to cast a lighting charm. "Is it here?" Harry whispered. Buffy answered with a nod as she peered into the distance. Harry thought it was strange that the demon was so close to Buffy's house. He had thought that they would have had to travel far longer to find the mysterious location of the beast. "Strange that it's so close. I wonder if it can also feel you. Maybe it's this close because it's also following this connection that you two share. Perhaps it thinks you're one of them," Harry muttered before frowning deeply, "that's kind of sad if you think about it."

Buffy rolled her eyes at him. "Stay back and don't do anything. I don't want to have to worry about you hitting me," she said while giving the wand in his hand an untrusting look. Harry nodded but felt slightly offended that she seemed to think his aim was that terrible. He wouldn't be able to do much anyway because he wasn't sure just how long the amulet would last without a constant connection. If the amulet's shield fell, then Buffy would no doubt collapse to the ground in that same instant. He wouldn't ever hear the end of it if he accidentally crippled Buffy while she was in the middle of fighting a demon.

As they moved forward, Harry began to feel the sharp probing of a mental link. At first, he thought Buffy's necklace was failing but then realized that it wasn't Buffy trying to get into his mind. The demon was close, and its mental projection had found him. Harry blocked the attack but knew that his presence was most likely still felt by the demon. His mind had remained closed, but the demon still knew he was there.

Buffy moved forward slowly, but she never had to backtrack or seemed confused as to where her target was. Harry saw the grip on her sword tighten as the Demon leaped out from behind a tree. The demon's eyes were focused on Harry but seemed surprised that Buffy was even there. It took a step back as Buffy raised her weapon. It didn't hesitate for even a moment before it turned around and started to run in a hasty retreat. It took Buffy a moment overcome her shock at the retreating demon before she started to give chase. Harry broke into a run of his own to keep up with the two.

Harry knew right away why it was running. "It relies on hearing our thoughts!" he shouted to Buffy, "it's confused."

Harry knew Buffy had heard him, but she didn't respond. She was far too focused on the chase and catching up with the demon. The demon was larger with a much longer stride, but it's bulk only seemed to slow it down. Buffy was able to catch up to it before it could find safety in the heavily wooded area, where the lack of light would impair Buffy. Harry had fallen a bit behind but was still well within the safe distance required to keep her necklace active. Harry watched as Buffy pulled alongside the retreating demon before tackling it to the ground. Buffy was the first to rise and immediately went for a decapitation with a strong swing of her sword. The demon managed to block the blow with its forearm. The scales on its arm prevented the limb from being severed, but a flash of blood implied that it was still a nasty wound. The demon closed the distance to Buffy and managed to throw her to the ground. However, instead of re-engaging with her, the demon refocused its attention on Harry instead and moved in his direction. Before it could make it more than a step, Harry saw a flash of red as the demon fell to its knees. Buffy had managed to slice the back of the creatures leg with the far reaching sword. It struggled to get back to its feet, but Buffy got their first. With one more swing of her sword, the demons head dropped to the ground.

"It went straight for you," Buffy said with a frown at the dead demon, "rude."

Harry let out a bark of laughter. "Maybe it sensed the magic," he reasoned with a shrug. It wasn't able to read either of their minds, so Harry didn't quite understand why it would try to go for him first. Another option was that although it could sense Harry's presence, the shield around Buffy's head had prevented the probe from even recognizing her. Or perhaps, he just seemed like an easy target.

Buffy grimaced as she took out the knife she had brought and knelt next to the demon. She sighed deeply at the impending task before she began to stab into the chest area with long reluctant strokes. She was using one hand to carve out the heart while her left hand had reached up to plug her nose.

Deciding not to waste the opportunity, Harry conjured up a large flask while making sure to keep the link with the necklace in tact. He levitated it near the demon's open neck wound and let the flask collect as much of the bleeding demon as it could. The bleeding soon stopped and Harry cleaned up any excess blood and corked the flask. He then made it unbreakable. He would have to transfer the blood to another permanent container later on, but it would do for now.

"What are you doing?" Buffy asked suspiciously as she eyed the flask.

"This turned you into a telepath," Harry said plainly, "imagine if I could learn how to control it."

"You came for the blood," Buffy said in realization. Harry frowned in response.

"No, I came to help," he began, defending himself, "I just don't think it should go to waste."

She grunted in response but Harry could tell that she didn't quite believe him. Harry continued to frown at her. It was the truth and it bothered him that she would believe otherwise. Harry wasn't sure why it bothered him, but it did. He eyed the flask in his hand. The blood would most likely stay there and remain useless. It would be very risky to experiment with it without having a theory on how to control the side effects. It would also be dangerous to keep it in case someone else got a hold of it and accidentally touched it. It would then become his responsibility to find another demon in order to find a second heart to complete a cure. He supposed if he did think of a way to use the blood to his advantage, he could always search for a similar demon somewhere. That would be risky though because It was possible that the one lying dead on the ground was the last of its species. Was it worth the risk?

Deciding that he had far more important things to do than worry about the flask of blood, Harry vanished it along with all the blood that it held. Harry tried to convince himself that he had changed his mind about the blood because it was simply too dangerous and that it had nothing at all to do with the disapproving Slayer kneeling next to him. If Buffy noticed the vanishing of the container, then she didn't say anything. Harry thought he saw a noticeable decrease in the tension of her shoulders, but he couldn't be sure.

After some struggling, Buffy was finally able to remove the demon's heart. She held it as far away from herself as she could with a large grimace on her face. Harry conjured up a large glass jar and handed it to her. She dropped it inside and sealed it shut. With a wave of his wand, he vanished the demon and every drop of blood laying on the grass or splashed across Buffy's shirt. She seemed to appreciate it.

"On-call Slayer laundry service reporting for duty," he quipped. She gave a small smile, but it seemed forced. The worry over her own mental health, as well as the safety of her classmates, seemed to have set her nerves on edge. "You ready?" he asked as he figured an Apparition to the library was in order. She nodded as she gripped the jar tightly.

"You want me to carry it?" Harry asked as she saw her death grip. "You might drop it. You aren't used to Apparition yet."

"Maybe I'll just call Giles and get a ride back," she said stubbornly. She was quite unwilling to trust her salvation to anyone but herself. Harry grinned, acknowledging the fact that he would have done the same if he was in that situation.

"Fine," he said with a sigh. He tapped his wand on the jar and it glowed bright blue for a second before returning to normal. "Now it's unbreakable."

She glanced at him and then back to the jar with a frown. She didn't seem to know whether or not to believe his claim. She tapped on the glass but it only made the same pinging noise as you'd find on any other glass object. Harry didn't know why she seemed so skeptical, making a jar unbreakable wasn't all that extraordinary compared to the other things he had proven to be capable of. That conclusion seemed to pass through Buffy's thoughts as well, for she nodded her acceptance and said that she was ready to go.

They popped into the library a moment later. Buffy, like before, stumbled; though this time it was far less noticeable. It seemed that Harry had worried for nothing because the jar remained safe in her firm grip.

Turning the corner, they found Giles pacing around the table, with a book open in his hands as he muttered to himself about alternative potential cures.

"Got the heart," Buffy said cheerfully as she pranced to the table. Harry frowned as he watched her. Her attitude had completely changed in the span of only a minute. Did she feel safer now that Giles was there, or was she simply putting on a brave face?

Giles looked up in hope. When he noticed the jar that Buffy was carrying, his expression quickly morphed into that of relief. "Buffy?" he asked in disbelief, "how did you . . ."

"I'm shielding her mind," Harry explained as he joined Buffy at the table. Harry could feel fatigue beginning to set in. The constant channeling of the protective shield had drained him over the last half an hour. Still, he was a long way away from being too tired to hold it.

Giles gave him a grateful nod before turning back to Buffy "Cut it up into small pieces," Giles ordered as he handed her a board to use. "quickly."

"What!? But I just filled my quota of disgusting slayer duties." she reminded as she held up the jar containing the heart, which still had blood covering it.

"We can't be sure it won't infect someone else," Giles explained. "Please be quick. It says quite clearly that the heart has to be fresh," he said before pointed to a line in the book as if to make his point.

Buffy grumbled to herself as she emptied the heart on the table and began to dice it into smaller pieces.

"Smaller," Giles advised as he watched her. "You need to drink them," He said plainly as he instructed her.

She stopped her work to stare at him in horror. Giles was too busy reading the next part of the recipe to notice. Eventually, she went back to work, though her grumbling had grown louder and the dicing of the heart began to get more violent.

Once Buffy finished preparing the heart, Giles collected a bit of each ingredient displayed on the table and started to place them in the mortar as he read from his book. He used the pestle to grind up all the dry ingredients into a fine dust. After that was done, he placed the dusted remains into a small flask and handed it to Buffy.

"Place the heart inside."

Buffy grabbed the small pieces of heart and carefully added them to the mixture before Giles took the flask back from her and left the room. Harry vanished all the remains off of the table and her hands. He didn't want any of the remaining pieces to infect anyone else.

When Giles returned, the antidote was ready. Inside the flask was a bright blue tonic that seemed to glow with luminescence. Harry could see small pieces of the heart floating around in the liquid and he was glad that he wouldn't be the one drinking it. Buffy must have noticed the pieces too, as her face paled at the thought of what she was about to do. Buffy took the flask from him with a grimace and stared at it.

"Best if you drink the whole thing," Giles suggested, earning himself a glare from the blonde Slayer. He pretended not to notice it but Harry could detect the humor in his eyes. It seemed as if the bulk of the man's worry had faded.

Buffy took a few breaths in preparation before she raised the cure to her lips and began to drink from it. In Buffy's rush to get it over with, the tonic went down quickly. She placed the empty glass on the table. Giles and Harry watched for any signs of it working, but nothing happened.

"Do you want to take off the necklace to test if—" Harry didn't get the chance to finish his question, as Buffy grunted in pain and collapsed to the floor. She soon began to convulse; her legs and arms smacking against the tiled floor. Shocked for a moment, Harry watched as Giles rushed to Buffy and tried to keep her from hurting herself. Harry canceled the shield that protected her before hitting her with a Stunner.

She continued to convulse, but Harry knew that she was now unconscious and wouldn't feel anything. After a few minutes, the convulsions ceased and Giles got back up from the floor while Harry countered the spell and woke her up. Buffy raised herself slowly off of the ground, wincing from the bruises of the fall.

"A little warning next time," Buffy groaned. "Sure you did it right?" she asked as she rubbed her sore thigh. It had taken most of the impact.

"How do you feel?" Giles asked as he peered at her.

"Huh? It was just a small fall . . ."

"I canceled the protection charm," Harry explained as she trailed off. He gestured to the now ordinary necklace. Her eyes opened briefly in surprise before she stuck her hands around her neck and removed the piece of jewelry. Buffy placed it on the table and walked away.

"they're gone," she muttered as her face lit up with a relieved smile.

Harry watched as Giles collapsed into a chair, his worry fading and leaving only exhaustion. Harry walked over to retrieve the necklace in order to repair it. With a wave of his wand, the runes vanished and it was as good as new. He handed the pristine necklace back to Buffy. She eyed it for a second before giving him a nod in appreciation as she tucked it into her pocket.

Harry noticed that the sun was beginning to trickle into the room. "It's almost morning, do you want me to stay to help you with the students?" he asked.

Buffy shook her head, "The principal here is a grouch. You wouldn't make it five minutes before being forced out."

Harry thought about reminding her about his invisibility ability but decided not to. It wasn't as if he was just going to volunteer information, and he wasn't sure whether or not she saw that he had been invisible during the capturing of Faith or not.

"Alright, but if it gets serious, let me know. I'm hardly going to let one grouchy man get in the way," Harry said, trusting that Buffy could take care of it on her own.

Giles had shown him a lot of trust when he told Harry where Buffy lived. Not only that, but he had sent Harry into her home while she had been competently defenseless. If that wasn't a show of trust, Harry didn't know what was. Would he have trusted any of them if the situations were reversed? He didn't know.

Harry looked around and noticed who wasn't here, "Where's Wesley? Shouldn't he be trying to cure his Slayer?"

Giles and Buffy exchanged a look before Giles answered, "We haven't seen or heard from him in days. We..."

"He got canned," Buffy interrupted with a pleased smile.

"We don't know that," Giles said with a worried frown, "he could be in danger."

"Oh please, Giles. We both know that he called up his boss the first chance he got and told them what happened," Buffy scoffed.

"No doubt trying to blame you, me and everyone else for it," Harry mused.

Giles remained thoughtful, "I wouldn't count him out just yet. He may have just been ordered to travel to The Councils headquarters to give a full report."

"Won't they just send someone else?" Harry asked, trying to understand how this Council worked.

Giles nodded, "No doubt someone with more experience. Someone harder for Buffy to ignore or work around."

Buffy folded her arms over her chest, "What can they do anyway? I'm done with him."

Giles didn't respond. Perhaps he knew just what The Council was capable of, but didn't want to worry her.

Seeing the topic die, Harry decided that it was time to leave, he took out his wand in order to Apparate when Buffy stopped him "Wait! I . . ." she paused awkwardly. "I'm sorry," she said finally. Harry just stared blankly, having no idea what she meant. "About the blood," she specified.

Harry finally understood. She must have noticed that he had been insulted at the assumption that he was only helping her in order to get his hands on the blood of the demon. "Don't be," Harry said with a shrug. "It was probably a bad idea anyway."

Giles was looking back and forth, clearly confused with the exchange, but he seemed to let it go. "Buffy, you may want to have Harry get you back home to see your mother. There's time before the other students arrive, and I imagine that she is quite worried," Giles advised.

Buffy agreed, and Harry took her back to her house. Buffy thanked him for the help before heading inside in order to see her mother. Harry headed back to the apartment and his couch, where he planned to sleep the next eight hours. He just hoped that Buffy was able to find whoever was plotting a mass murder at her school, but he wasn't too worried about it. If worse came to worse, he hoped that she would trust him enough to ask for help.

Author Notes - I won't be terribly surprised if a lot of readers are a little disappointed about the lackluster fight with the demon. I thought briefly about making it more difficult, but Buffy was able to kill one of them in a two on one fight while they could read her mind. I just felt like a one on one fight after they took away the demon's only advantage would just have to go a lot smoother for Buffy.

Until next time.